The Highland Wilderness 191 



the wind. There was very little bird or mammal life; 

 there were few long vistas, for in most places it was not 

 possible to see far among the gray, gnarled trunks of the 

 wind-beaten little trees. Yet the desolate landscape had 

 a certain charm of its own, although not a charm that 

 would be felt by any man who does not take pleasure in 

 mere space, and freedom and wildness, and in plains 

 standing empty to the sun, the wind, and the rain. The 

 country bore some resemblance to the country west of 

 Redjaf on the White Nile, the home of the giant eland; 

 only here there was no big game, no chance of seeing the 

 towering form of the giraffe, the black bulk of elephant 

 or buffalo, the herds of straw-colored hartebeests, or the 

 ghostly shimmer of the sun glinting on the coats of roan 

 and eland as they vanished silently in the gray sea of 

 withered scrub. 



One feature in common with the African landscape 

 was the abundance of ant-hills, some as high as a man. 

 They were red in the clay country, gray where it was 

 sandy ; and the dirt houses were also in trees, while their 

 raised tunnels traversed trees and ground alike. At some 

 of the camping-places we had to be on our watch against 

 the swarms of leaf-carrying ants. These are so called 

 m the books — the Brazilians call them "carregadores," or 

 porters — ^because they are always carrying bits of leaves 

 and blades of grass to their underground homes. They 

 are inveterate burden-bearers, and they industriously cut 

 into pieces and carry off any garment they can get at; 

 and we had to guard our shoes and clothes from them, 

 just as we had often had to guard all our belongings 

 against the termites. These ants did not bite us ; but we 



